Motivation Process and Adams Equity Theory - Essay Example

A person is able to accomplish the things it wants in life due a force that attracts and focus a person towards doing a particular action. The driventhat comes from inside that helps people or organization accomplish a given task is called motivation. Motivation is a concept used to describe the factors within an individual which arose, maintain and channel behavior towards a goal (Bolton). Motivation is important for human at all phases in life, but especially during early adulthood when a person has to decide what they are going to do the rest of their life in terms of deciding an area of study to prepare themselves for a career. There are different theories and processes that describe the motivational process. This essay discusses the motivation process by describing different theories and concepts that analyze the pros and cons of the different motivational theories. One model that describes the motivational process is called Lock's model of goal setting. The model was developed by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham in 1990 (Skinner). A goal is an action that regulates behavior and guides it in specific path towards accomplishing the desired outcome within a specified period of time. The goal setting theory may be used in organization to create expectations of what is expected of the employees of a company as well as individual to reach their personal desires. It has been used as a scientific method in certain patients such as drug addicts to determine cognitive behavioral treatments (Skinner). Goal theory provides certain advantages to its users and other constraints which prohibit accomplished the desired results for the use of the technique. The theory needs to have goals set that are challenging and difficult to reach and are not ambiguous so that the specific end state that is desired is clearly defined for the person or employees working to accomplish the goal. The performance of an organization tends to be lower if a goal can be easily reached. People individual that set easy to reach personal goal is not challenging themselves and their true potential is been hidden to them by their complacency. The theory proposes that goals are the immediate regulators of behavior, thus setting difficult goals lead to higher levels of performance (Erez). This theory has constraints which may limit the effectives of the method. There needs to be goal commitment for it to work. If a person is not truly committed towards achieving a goal motivation will be enhanced in any way since a person does not real care about a achieving the goal. A person has to apply self-efficacy in order to find the best way to efficiently accomplish the goal without affecting other aspect of a person's life. Another thing that must occur for the theory to work is that the person setting or trying to accomplish the goal must receive feedback from other people about their progress in order for the individuals to keep themselves motivated towards continuing the battle to accomplish the goal. A second theory of Motivation is Adam's Equity Theory of motivation developed by John Stacey Adam in 1963. The theory is touches the motivation aspects of work experiences. Equity theory extends beyond the individual self to incorporate other's people's situation which includes co-workers and friends to form a comparative view of awareness and equity (Chapman). Equity in itself relates to a sense of fairness in the actions endeavor realize. The motivation a person has to accomplish a set goal is evaluated internally by the person comparing the obligation and job goals he is suppose to achieve with what others are expected to perform. A person working as a salesperson for a distribution company that is given a quota of 10 sales per week will accept and work towards accomplishing this benchmark as long as other salesperson are expected to perform the same and as long as this quota is within the boundaries of the industry standards. If the salesperson finds out the main competitor of the company set the minimum weekly quota for its salespeople at 5 unit the employee will lose motivation immediately because he will perceive the company's requirement as unfair and abusive. The sense of fairness which underpins motivation is dependent on the comparison a person makes between the reward/investment ratio of the person in regards to the ratio of other in similar scenarios (Chapman). The factors affecting the functioning of the theory that enables it to be used by anyone to motivate others is the input/output relationship with regards to perceived equity. The types of input a person gives includes effort, spirit, hard work, desire, consistency, attendance, team work, abilities and skill. These elements exist and many are desired characteristics of an employer seeks from a worker. The output which are linked to the input in the workplace include the employee's salary, bonuses, fringe benefits, intrinsic rewards, support, training and development opportunities, and other non financial rewards such as respect, loyalty and positive feedback. The input/output relationship elements are the determining factors that induce motivation based on the perception of fairness and equity the person has in relation to the expectation the company imposes on other people within the organization. The managerial staff in particular the human resources department must pay close attention to the relationship of input / output according to equity theory and establish fair standards aligned with the best interest of the workforce. A third theory that provides an explanation of the processes involved in motivating people is called expectancy theory. Expectancy theory states that worker motivation of how much a person wants a reward (valence), the estimate that the probability that the effort will result in the expected performance (expectancy) and the belief that the performance will result in the reward (instrumentality) (Ali). A person in an organization working towards obtaining a newly open position is influenced by expectancy theory to keep himself / herself motivated. In this scenario the employee is working hard and doing the extra things so that their effort is noticed by the management staff. The extra hours, effort and top performance of the person is occurring due to the motivating factor of possible obtaining an position to ascend the person up the corporate ladder. The potential promotion serves as the motivating reward for the person and the person belief that the company will do the right thing and promote in-house to the best candidate, the aspiring businessperson, is the instrumentality that allows motivation to take place. In order for expectancy theory to be effective the reward offered to the person or group of people in need of motivation must be attractive. If a reward is not attractive expectancy theory will fail to achieve the desire result inducing motivation. Imagine a group workers in a factory dedicated to manufacturing paper bags. The management team wants to increase production since a recent study showed a process improvement that cost $100,000 may be able to increase production by 25%. The manager also realizes the workers are underpaid and overworked as it is and motivating the staff to produce more will be hard. The company needs to find a way to motivate the staff. Expectancy theory is the basis for the solution the management of this company seeks. The managers can create a new incentive plan as a reward to motivate employees to reach higher levels of output. The new incentive play will serve as the reward for those the majority of the employees to motivate them to reach higher levels of production. Not everyone will be motivated to produce more output. That is the main problem with expectancy theory. A reward no matter how attractive will not motivate everyone to seek the desired objective. The world is place in which people do as they wish and many times follow a certain routine because a person has nothing to thrive for. Motivation is the key ingredient a person needs to seek to accomplish new things. Motivation can work if a person establishes specific goals to accomplish. In the corporate world goal setting is common practice that is used at all corporate levels. The goals established by management must be set high in order to obtain maximum results. Motivation is also can be view in other ways. A person is sometimes motivated to perform a task if the task assigned to the person is perceived as fair based on what are others are doing. A two dollar tip is good tip if everyone is else is receiving about the same amount. Motivation is also a function of the type of reward being offered to someone to perform a task. The psychological concept of motivation is an extremely important element that utilized by managers, teachers, and financial planners to increase the performance of the people they are responsible of helping. Motivation helps individual achieve the things they desired, without it a person does not have a direction in life to follow. References Ali, M. 2008. "Expectancy Theory: What do they want'" 12 January 2008. Bolton, L. "What is Motivation'" 12 January 2008. Read More